Shelby County, Ill. (ECWd) –

The Shelby County State’s Attorney filed a motion for the Court to appoint a Special Prosecutor in the criminal case against Teresa Boehm.

Boehm is a Shelby County Board member who was collecting compensation for sitting on a Township Cemetery board in violation of applicable statutes.  During a Quo-Warranto action taken to have the courts remove her from the prohibited position, the docket entry on the comments from the judge has meaning that some locals are either not aware of or are simply ignoring.

“COURT FINDS THAT ANY POTENTIAL INJURY TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE HAS BEEN ALEVIATED BY HER RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICE.”

What were the potential injuries to the public at large if her actions were permitted to continue?

• Signals to the public that laws do not matter.

While many have argued this issue is no big deal, we simply ask if such an action is no big deal, why did the state legislature choose to make such violations of the law a felony?  Clearly, the legislature understood this to be a serious issue.

• Taxpayer funds would continue to be paid to a person not permitted to hold the office.
• There were no records of any minutes or agendas, which indicates no meetings were being held by the applicable board, yet money was being paid to Boehm.  Allowing such payments to continue when no meetings or actual duties being complied with hurts the taxpayers. (article here)

What else did the court indicate in the docket entries?

• “CHARGES ARE POSSIBLE UNDER ACT”
• “S/A ADVISED HE IS ABLE TO FILE CRIMINAL CHARGES IF HE WISHES”

To all those who have alleged the actions of Boehm are not a crime, why then would the Judge indicate charges are possible under the act and why would he advise the State’s Attorney he is able to file criminal charges if he wishes?  Those very entries indicate the court understood the law and violations of it could result in criminal charges.

The local propaganda being pushed on this matter is that the charges and indictments were political because of Boehm being the lone Democrat on the board.  Boehm’s son, Dr. Christopher Boehm, indicated the State’s Attorney was going after his mom because he yelled at him in a meeting. We covered that in this article. Dr. Boehm has his own problems in the courts as he is facing an indirect criminal contempt charge which we covered in this article.

The appointment of a special prosecutor in this case should alleviate some of the propaganda that this matter is political.

Facts that are not in dispute, Boehm held an office not authorized to be held if you’re on a county board and she received funds for what appears to be for doing nothing since there is no record of any minutes or agendas for the board, she confirmed she sat on.

We will update with a new article as this case moves through the court.